Lost on a journey to free his mind

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Mystery about his whereabouts Ryan Chambers, front, just
days before he disappeared, with his friend John Booker, near
Rishikesh.

His last message was simple.

"If I'm gone, don't worry," wrote Ryan Chambers. "I'm not dead,
I'm freeing minds. But first I have to free my own."

For days beforehand, the 21-year-old Australian backpacker had
hardly slept, and his travelling companion, John Booker, wondered
what was wrong. The men were staying at an ashram in India, on a
spiritual journey of sorts, which was supposed to be coming to an
end.

But four weeks ago he disappeared in Rishikesh - barefoot and
shirtless, and left behind his money, passport and mobile phone. He
remains lost - emotionally as much as physically, his parents
believe - becoming one of those Australians in peril abroad and cut
adrift from his family - not by kidnapping or natural disaster, but
apparently by the troubles of his own mind.

Rishikesh has long been a magnet for Westerners. In 1968 it was
to this sacred city on the banks of the Ganges that the Beatles
made their pilgrimage to study transcendental meditation with the
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. John Lennon wrote a song there, The Happy
Rishikesh Song. "Everything you need is here," it went. "And
everything that's not here is not there." In their footsteps,
thousands of travellers beat a path to the area. This year Booker
and Chambers did the same, their goals more prosaic.

The young men, friends since they went to kindergarten in Mount
Gambier, left Adelaide for India on June 20. They were not out to
change the world; they were just looking for an experience and an
adventure. After two months they made it to Rishikesh and settled
in to the Sri Ved Neketan, an ashram offering daily yoga and
meditation classes.

They were happy, says Jock Chambers, who has just returned to
Australia after a fruitless search for his son. "Ryan had wanted to
go to India for years and John was of a similar mind. They were
relaxed and having a great time."

But as the days went on, Booker started to worry. His mate did
not sleep for several nights. Chambers brushed off his concern,
saying he was on holiday; he could sleep when he wanted. One day,
Chambers and a Spanish traveller went to the home of an Indian
family to see a baba, one of the orange-robed spiritual
figures common in the area. He returned to the ashram apparently
unsettled, telling Booker they had left because they felt
uncomfortable, but did not elaborate.

Booker later told Chambers's parents that Ryan was "not
himself". Then, on August 23, Chambers called home. His mother,
Dianne, felt vague unease. "He wasn't quite himself he just
said that he'd found everything that he was looking for and that he
was ready to come home," she says.

They expected him back soon. "We said, 'Give us a ring tomorrow
and let us know what your plans are'," says Jock Chambers. Back in
Rishikesh that night, Booker thought his friend was happier. They
played music and Chambers wrote in his journal. Booker, unwell,
went to bed.

On August 24 Booker woke and went to an early yoga class. He
assumed Chambers was sleeping, but later realised he was gone - and
learned, from the employee who had opened the gates that morning,
that his mate had walked out at 5am, wearing only a pair of blue
shorts. By nightfall, Booker was worried enough to call Jock and
Diane. Within days, Jock Chambers flew to India to join Booker in
the search, later joined by Ryan's elder brother, Jarrad. With the
help of Australian consular staff, they blanketed the area with
posters and alerted police.

Nothing. Then, suddenly, a breakthrough: a week after Ryan
disappeared someone had seen him. "He walked into a temple about 10
kilometres from Rishikesh," Jock Chambers says. There was relief at
this news, tempered by concern: he seemed distressed. "He was
sitting down and he was delusional, which would have been
exhaustion from lack of sleep. The priest fed him and gave him a
drink, but he wasn't able to stay there so he left. And again the
trail has gone cold."

Chambers has not been seen since. His father believes he is
still alive, but under the influence of someone or something that
has taken him from them. "Ryan's always been spiritual and he's
obviously looking for something but this is totally out of
character. He's not thinking straight because he wouldn't put John
through this and he wouldn't put his family through it."

For his mother, the battle is to focus on facts, not wild
imaginings about the fate of the youngest of her three boys.

"As a mother I don't go down the mental track that I've got two
sons now and not three. Each dead end you come to is not the end of
the story; it's just the end of a chapter."

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1126981947872-smh.com.auhttp://www.smh.com.au/news/world/lost-on-a-journey-to-free-his-mind/2005/09/18/1126981947872.htmlsmh.com.auSydney Morning Herald2005-09-19Lost on a journey to free his mindNeil McMahonWorldhttp://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2005/09/19/ryanchambersjohnbooker_narrowweb__200x281.jpg

Mystery about his whereabouts Ryan Chambers, front, just
days before he disappeared, with his friend John Booker, near
Rishikesh.